There's one souvenir I guess is in that building. This evening I was telling you about when we thought the goons were coming in from Toledo, Saginaw and Bay City. Cause about sixteen officers in a very small room all armed ready for whatever might happen. One of these fellows got to mucking around with a forty-five. Back in those days we carried forty-five caliber pistols.

He got to mucking with that. Somewhere or other he got a shell in the chamber. How, I don't know. But he let fly with that thing straight up in the air. And a great big cement beam, as I remember about that size, and he took a hunk off that beam.

Well, the last thing that happened after they took the troops out of the place. They left me behind to tour the building with the building manager. Probably a chief custodian or something like that. And check up with him on any damage that might have been done because the State of Michigan would have been accountable for it.

I pointed this out to him, I said you're gonna have to have that repaired or something, cause I guy hit that with a forty-five. Nah, he says lets leave that up there for a souvenir. I was always going to go back there to see if that beam had a piece knocked out of the corner of it or not, but it never happened.

Show Transcript Speaker: Martin%20Japinga. Interviewed by U-M Flint Labor History Project. Date of interview: 3-3-1980. Edited by Michael Van Dyke.

Copyright: ©2002 Michigan State University.